Tag Archives: discipline

Here’s a story that should make your head spin: Officials at an elementary school in N.J. say the best way to ensure young children steer clear of drugs is to make them afraid of being randomly drug tested:

A proposal to conduct random drug tests of young students in one New Jersey town is raising some eyebrows.

Students at Belvidere Elementary School could be adding drug testing to their list of lessons when they move into middle school.

The Board of Education will vote Wednesday on a plan to randomly test sixth, seventh and eighth graders to see if they are under the influence of drugs. School administrators said they were confident the proposal would pass.

Elementary School Principal Sandra Szabocsik said school officials want to use the testing “as a deterrent.”

“We’re hoping that the students if they’re at say a party or someone’s house or just hanging out somewhere, that they’ll say ‘I don’t want to get involved in drinking or using any drug because tomorrow could be a drug testing day,'” she told CBS 2′s Christine Sloan.

The program is voluntary and both parents and students must consent. School officials said it was important to note that if a student tested positive, they would not be suspended or have the results sent to the police.

Instead, those students would get counseling or even be referred to a rehab facility …

A dozen children pretending to drink alcohol were suspended from Wake Forest Rolesville Middle School school in Raleigh, N.C., despite school officials not falling for the awkward joke. Once it was determined that the fake booze was just soda, the kids were disciplined as if they had brought hard alcohol to school.

One parent told the local ABC News affiliate that his daughter received a “10-day suspension and was told to attend a drug program that costs $450.” That’s the standard punishment given to kids caught violating the Wake County Schools’ “Narcotics, Alcoholic Beverages, Controlled Substances, Chemical and Drug Paraphernalia” policy.

No student shall possess, use, distribute, sell, possess with intent to distribute or sell, or conspire or attempt to distribute or sell, or be under the influence of any narcotic drug, hallucinogenic drug, amphetamine, barbiturate, marijuana, anabolic steroid, other controlled substance, any alcoholic beverage, malt beverage, fortified wine, other intoxicating liquor, drug paraphernalia, counterfeit substance, any unauthorized prescription drug, or any other chemicals or products with the intention of bringing about a state of exhilaration, euphoria, or of otherwise altering the student’s mood or behavior.

School officials declined to comment to ABC News on the case, but even if the kids were charged with possessing “counterfeit” alcohol, the soda in their bottles could in no way — intentionally or unintentionally — brought about “a state of exhilaration, euphoria, or of otherwise altering the student’s mood or behavior.”

Punish the kids for playing a bad joke about a serious matter on their teachers, but pretending they’re drug addicts, suspending them for 10 days, and sending them to rehab seems a bit much. What are your thoughts?

"I'm little irate because he's a responsible kid," the child's father said. "He's a Boy Scout."

An 11-year-old Boy Scout who found butane lighter on the walk to school has been suspended on weapons charges. Despite the lighter being taken by a teacher, school officials proceeded to discipline the boy as if he had set fire to the school with his so-called “weapon.”

According to Dr. Gail Verona, district superintendent of Jamesburg Public Schools in N.J., the boy’s newfound lighter is a “weapon” that had the potential to “compromise student safety.”

Verona cited the school’s conduct policy that expressly prohibits students from bringing “weapons” to school, that she defined as “anything that has the potential to cause harm.” She noted that a lighter is “not a weapon as a knife is a weapon,” but decided err on the side of caution even if the boy had no intention of causing damage or harm.

Verona admits she and other school officials are on heightened alert right now after a student sparked a “minor” fire last year. “There’s been a heightened awareness and a very heightened concern about student safety. Maybe this student wouldn’t have set fire to anything, but there’s the potential that it could have been passed to someone who would have,” she said.

It appears these jittery school officials are making an example of the Boy Scout early on in the new school year, overlooking the fact that he made an honest mistake of picking-up a lighter during his walk to school. Instead of using the unfortunate incident as an opportunity to teach the boy and his classmates about the importance of ‘not playing with fire,’ they opted for the ‘tough love’ route, a classic nanny state disciplinary tool.

The nanny state uses tough love to get its desired results by punishing people for actions it deems unsafe or unhealthy, but for some reason, it never seems to be able to tell people why those actions are bad. Case in point, school children are now afraid of bringing lighters to school, not because they’re concerned about fire safety issues, but out of fear of getting suspended or worse.

What happens to all of those kids tearing-up when slicing onions in Home Economics class? Do they get accused of smoking dope, too?

A high school student who was caught tearing-up over the recent loss of a parent was accused of smoking marijuana because his eyes were “bloodshot.” Kyler Robertson, a junior at Byron Nelson High School in Fort Worth, Texas, was suspended for three days by school officials who rushed to judgment before getting their facts straight.

Two days after Robertson’s father was stabbed to death, he returned to school in hopes of regaining a sense of “normalcy,” his mother told NBC News. Instead, the grieving student was treated to an egregious case of insensitivity by teachers who were all too eager to assume the worst about him.

Lesley Weaver, a district spokeswoman, told NBC News that, in general, students are not suspended without “multiple indicators” of drug use. She said on office worker claimed to smell marijuana on Robertson and that the school nurse reported he was jitter and his blood pressure was above normal.

His mother, Cristy Fritz, immediately took him to the doctor for a drug test which came back negative. She said her son is an “A or B” student and plays on the junior varsity golf team and the only medication he takes is to treat allergies.

Byron Nelson Principal Linda Parker apologized to Fritz in an e-mailed letter last Friday, agreeing to waive the suspension and clear her son’s record of the poorly handled incident.

Fritz noted that Parker mispelled her first name in the letter which has done nothing to remedy the overall consequences of the school’s mistreatment of a student grieving the loss of a parent.

“This letter is the cold hard proof that they don’t care about my son, what they have done to his character, reputation and what turmoil it has caused our family,” she told NBC News. “They made a mistake, they mishandled the situation, they were wrong.”

Just another example of common sense gone out the window, courtesy of the nanny state? Or, do you think school officials were justified in suspending Kyler Robertson from school because he showed signs typically associated with smoking marijuana? Sound-off below.

Who would ever believe that the socialists, liberals and ‘progressives’ over at The Huffington Post would be appalled by big government interference in American citizens’ lives, much less, impressionable young school children whose minds they’ve yet to manipulate? Well, wonder no more, because they posted proof in words and pictures.

Of course, out of the 17 “Weirdest Things Schools Have Banned,” there’s no mention of Bibles being banned on Freedom of Religion Day, students’ crucifixes being mistaken for gang symbols, or countless instances of God being removed from morning classroom recitals of the Pledge of Allegiance, and that’s probably cool with Huffington Post’s Grace Green:

Schools have a responsibility to protect their students, but when it comes to things like silly bandz and pogs, we wonder just how much protection kids really need. We found some of the weirdest things schools have banned, and we have to admit we are shocked at what some people consider a threat. Some of it we understand, like no toy guns or cell phones, but no Cheetos or breast cancer awareness bracelets? That’s crazy talk.

Got that? There are exceptions to how much nanny state bureaucrats can interfere in American’s lives, but only when it come to eating Cheetos and wearing Silly Bandz or breast cancer awareness bracelets.

We’ll assume everything else that’s fun, tasty and emits that awful stench of freedom is still off limits, unless The Huffington Post tells us otherwise.

2010 – Police called; arrest Johnny and Mark. Charge them with assault; both expelled, even though Johnny started it. Both children go to anger management programs for 3 months. School board holds meeting to implement bullying prevention programs.

Scenario: Robbie won’t be still in class; disrupts other students.

1957 – Robbie sent to office and given 6 of the best by the principal. Returns to class; sits still and does not disrupt class again.

2010 – Robbie given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADHD. Robbie’s parents get bi-weekly disability payments and school gets extra funding from government because Robbie has a disability.

Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his neighbor’s car and his dad gives him a whipping with his belt.

1957 – Billy is more careful next time; grows up normal; goes to college and becomes a successful businessman.

2010 – Billy’s dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy sent to foster care and joins a gang. State psychologist tells Billy’s sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison.